2015.08.30 : View this Review Online | View Recent NDPR Reviews
Fiona Woollard, Doing and Allowing Harm, Oxford University Press, 2015, 239pp., $70.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780199683642.
Reviewed by Jakob Elster, University of Oslo
The idea that there is a morally relevant distinction between doing harm and allowing harm is one of the core deontological convictions and plays an important role in our common-sense moral judgements. Yet, common as this claim is, doubts can be, and have been, raised about the doing/allowing-distinction. Fiona Woollard seeks to assuage such doubts by first showing exactly what the distinction between doing and allowing amounts to and next providing a defense of the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing. Woollard's book is meticulous and solidly argued and should be a natural starting point for future discussions of the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing. Woollard first defines the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing (henceforth: DDA) as "the claim that doing harm is. . .